


Headstrong Daughter

by Merfilly



Series: Slip In Time Pern AU [2]
Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-05
Updated: 2013-01-05
Packaged: 2017-11-23 19:36:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/625798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Ruathan Raiders live in the cold mountains and have not yet learned of Thread's return...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Headstrong Daughter

**Author's Note:**

> For several purposes, I am positing that in this set up, Lessa was born later in her parent's lives, making her a few Turns younger than in Dragonflight.
> 
> Also, before someone says OOC, this is a reimagining of the character with a vastly different background. This is my opinion of how THIS Lessa might have turned out.

_In one time, she became the most respected/feared Weyrwoman of Pern. In another, she died a child at the threshold of a watchwher's den. In this..._

Kale reached out a hand to his headstrong daughter, sweeping her up onto the back of his runnerbeast. She'd come late to his life with Adessa, maintaining the line that had been nearly wiped out near to sixty Turns before. Nabol had taken advantage of the Ruathan Lord being in Fort to attend to treaties, sweeping down on a wall staffed with bribed guardsmen. Kale's father had been but a boy, and smuggled out by the loyal Warder in a sack of grain with a reed to breathe through.

Fortunately for Kale, the Traders had long felt a debt owed to Ruatha for the strong carter breeds they bred in addition to the prized riding beasts. They had given Ashmichel and a few retainers shelter long enough for Kale's father to grow up and secure as many of his scattered bloodline to his band as possible. The training in arms had come on travels through lands far from Ruatha, with all the blood carefully trained to never betray their bloodline to strangers.

None, not even the Nabolese, knew these mountains as the Ruathans did now, and Lessa was no different than her father in that respect. They all could hide in plain sight, or so it seemed, and were worth three of any mercenary. Lessa, for all her sixteen Turns, was fast growing toward being the most dangerous of the latest generation, borne to Adessa and a few distant cousins.

"Was a daft and foolish risk you took, my daughter," Kale scolded but the payoff was rich indeed.

"Dowell has need of the wood, and I'll not see it in the hands of the likes of one like Moron!"

Kale snorted, and then laughed at her usual epithet for the most recent piece of offal to pretend to hold Ruatha. Kale circled his hand, and his people melted from the sides of the mountains to swiftly scavenge all that was needed from this supply train. The wagons were poor imitations of the Traders' efficient land barges, and the men guarding them had been easily overcome. That Lessa's daredevil plunge into their midst, cutting the harness of the lead wagon in passing had contributed to the chaos of the moment could not be denied, however.

Within the hour, they were on the move again, bodies pitched down into sheer drop-offs along with anything they could not easily carry back to the latest camp. Lessa stayed with her father until her own runner came back, vaulting over to its back with the talent of one nearly whelped in the saddle.

"M'lady!"

One of their riders, a great nephew of the same that had saved Kale's father, Ashmichel, came abreast Lessa's wilder mount, holding out a sheaf of bound hides. "A tome for me? You always are kind, Darak," she said, playful and free as the winds pushing late wintry winds down on them. Darak flushed, but none called the Lady Lessa to task. She was as wild as she was whimsical, but once on her bad side, there was no saving a man from her.

Adessa had never had the strength to rein her in, and as Kale's sole daughter among the many sons, she had been indulged. That this indulgence had led to Lessa leading as fiercely as any of her brothers was not surprising to any that were close to the exiled Lord.

Lessa shifted her weight, being small and steady enough to bring her foot up over the runnerbeast's back, knee crooked so as to be a table, while her other leg extended some in the stirrup for balance. She began to flip through the tome, knowing she'd have to share it once they were in camp, and wanting to savor the new stories that might be found.

Unfortunately, it was a ledger, for the most part, along with some impossibly new drawings of the long extinct dragons. Another page depicted curling, flame shrouded strands. Was that the so-called Thread of myth? She turned a page to find rough sketches of men in leathers, women dressed the same, and a device that was almost man tall in its length spewing flames.

"Father!" She rode closer to her Lord, until her beast and his were nearly rubbing shoulders. "I'd swear the ink is new to the hide, but how? What does it mean in a book of ledger columns detailing munition purchases?"

Kale leaned enough to look them over, letting her turn the pages, before he frowned and shook his head. "I'll have to send someone into Fort, or perhaps Tillek, to learn more of the outer world."

"I will go!" Lessa decreed, but that got a very firm grasp of her wrist.

"You'll do no such, Lessa of Ruatha! Leave this one to Barla, or one of your brothers, rather than take such a risk. You've all the stamp of our line from your eyes to your hair to the cut of your bones."

"And none see that if I wish them not to!" Lessa decreed, before going meek for his rising anger. "You do not wish it, though."

"No. We will get to camp, and in the morning, I will discuss things. Then one will be chosen." Kale pulled on ahead, never once realizing she had not said she would not. Lessa continued to study the ledger. Fort would do nicely, and she had slept in her saddle more oft than not. Morning would find her already on her way, to sneak into Fort Hold's busy airs. The Harper Hall would be most in the know, and that was where she would set her spying ears and eyes.

Let her father be angry, let her mother worry. This task needed her gifts, and she was well aware of it. None of her brothers could blur their features, though granted, due to their varied mothers, none of them favored Lord Kale or the ancient line near as much. The closest to it was Aliam, but that was for the fiery red shock of hair that was rumored to be from the First Ruathans.

Give Lessa but a quarter of the span of the sun in one day, and she would have her answers for the fresh drawings in the tome.


End file.
